Dieters: What gift will you give yourself?

December is the month of giving but what kind of month will you give yourself? Will you be smiling in January?

You can drop all pretense of trying to lose weight and let yourself go for the whole month, making the most of every opportunity to wolf down more calories. Or you can carry on eating when you're hungry, stopping when you're full, making the best of the food choices available to you - even at parties. And you can eat extra healthily on the days when there's really nothing special happening.

You can give up exercise for the month and slump down on the sofa every night watching your waistline expand. Or you can keep active (even if you don't have time for your usual routine) by putting lots of energy into your preparations, keeping moving as you go about your day and fitting in 10 minutes of exercise (a walk, a stair climb, a few stretches) here and there.

You can get completely frazzled leaving everything until the last minute and set yourself up for a huge amount of stress and comfort eating. Or you can spend just a few minutes each day on preparations and cut out last minute panics.

You can make yourself sad and depressed by comparing your family party with the ones portrayed in the media or you can just decide to enjoy it, knowing that the media parties are the figment of the producer's and the designer's imagination (and the pictures were shot in August in a studio).

You can spend all your energy and time finding great gifts for everyone else and set yourself up for disappointment by just hoping something nice comes your way. Or you can make sure that you have something you really want this year, by dropping hints, asking directly (some people would love to know - it takes the pressure off!) or even just buying whatever it is you want and wrapping up the perfect gift just for yourself.

So you choose what kind of December to have. You can come out of it frazzled, overweight and disappointed or happy that you've enjoyed the break and haven't done too much damage to your waistline.

Choose wisely, give yourself the gift of a great December and have a fantastic time.

Janice Elizabeth is a weight loss coach and author of "The Diet Exit Plan", the system that promotes permanent healthy and AUTOMATIC weight loss through making small changes to your everyday habits. Visit http://www.SimplySlimming.com/Christmas today to get the Simply Slimming FREE ezine full of tips and recipes and a 24 page special report "How to have a Great Christmas without piling on the pounds".